Tip of the Week
When it comes to home decorating, it’s easy to blow your budget on one or two upgrades. Too often, however, costly decorating ploys disappoint, wearing out or becoming dated before you’ve paid off the financing. Fortunately, a handful of upgrades just scream “luxury,” while the price tags quietly snicker “this look didn’t cost an arm and a leg.”

Skylights: Luxury, drama and energy efficiency are the trifecta of home decorating and improvement, and few upgrades deliver all three as well as skylights. Because they admit abundant natural light into a room, skylights have a powerful impact. Skylights can help reduce electric bills by providing natural light and passive ventilation.
Gas fireplaces: While adding a wood-burning fireplace to an existing home may be difficult or impossible in many scenarios, modern gas fireplaces can go virtually anywhere, including interior walls. Direct-vent fireplaces go on exterior walls and eliminate the need for a chimney. Although not a DIY job for most homeowners, installing a gas fireplace can cost as little as $3,000.

Granite bathroom vanities: Granite remains the gold standard of luxury, beauty and function when you’re talking about countertops. Installing granite in a kitchen can be costly, but with smaller vanities and less counter space, bathrooms cost much less to outfit in granite. Professionally installed granite bathroom vanities can cost just a few thousand dollars.

Depending on the material that your bathtub is made of, you might have the option to refinish it rather than replace it. If your bathtub is made of porcelain, cast iron, or fiberglass, it can be refinished.

The cost-effectiveness of refinishing versus replacing your tub depends on the cost of tub removal, dumping, and the cost of the new tub itself, as well as installation. This is especially true for “period tubs”, like old claw-foot tubs. For example, The Fine FInish Shop, an expert painting company near Boston, lists $349 as their standard price for refinishing a bathtub, whereas vintage-style claw-foot tubs are generally listed in the high $900’s to the thousands.

The process of refinishing a bathtub is a lot like auto-body work. Uneven or damaged surfaces are etched, then primed, then spray painted with a special enamel. Sometimes the entire tub needs to be refinished, and sometimes just a portion of the tub needs to be refinished. It costs less to refinish just a portion of the bathtub. In some cases, the bathtub refinishing professional only needs to clean the tub in order to restore it to its former glory.

Professional refinishing: The best option for refinishing your bathtub is to hire a professional to refinish it. As I said, refinishing a tub is a lot like auto-body work. The margin for error is high, and the chemicals used in the process must be properly contained and ventilated. Refinishing your bathtub is not an unskilled, easy DIY job. Considering that it really doesn’t cost that much (compared to replacing the bathtub), hiring skilled refinishing company who specializes in this kind of work could cost you less in time and money in the long run than doing it yourself.

Surface “remodeling” is a great way to give your home a lift without investing a huge amount of time and cash. This type of work is really renovation, a cosmetic refinishing process, rather than deep down remodeling. Whatever you call it, a surface upgrade can be a fantastic way to update a house that doesn’t have any structural or safety issues, but just needs a fresher, brighter look. Surface reno will have the biggest impact in your kitchen or bathroom, where a complete remodel would come with a price tag of tens of thousands of dollars. As well as contractor manhours, you’ll save on building permits and designer’s fees. Here a list of 11 practical how-tos.

1. Preserve your home’s original footprint. Avoid relocation of plumbing lines, electricity, or gas whenever possible to save major money. Just moving one toilet a distance of more than three feet would cost you as much as $1000!

2. Ditto for the envelope, the exterior of your house. In fact, you’ll be best off not moving walls of any sort, outside or in. A perceived lack of space can often be dealt with by more effectively using the square footage you already have. For instance, you could add kitchen cabinets that extend all the way up to the ceiling for maximum storage space at a minimal price.

3. It’s often not as urgent to cut a new window as you might think. When you want to add a sunnier feel to a room, just paint it a brighter color (palest egg yolk or cream gives a warmer effect than pure white does). If that’s not enough, put in an inexpensive light tube to channel more daylight into your room. When better ventilation is your goal, install an exhaust fan.

4. Speaking of light, you can save still more cash by opting for easy-to-install, surface-mounted lighting fixtures over the trendier — but pricier — recessed type.

5. Reduce labor costs by applying new flooring on top of the existing floor; be sure to level the surface first. However, if the old flooring is vinyl or another material that can be pried up easily, take a peek underneath — you may get a pleasant surprise in the form of hardwood floorboards, hidden for years.

6. Cover up minor irregularities and flaws in your walls with attractive “disguises” such as wainscoting, wallpaper, or textured paint. Do NOT try this, though, when the problem is due to serious issues like mold.

7. Get the look of a brand new kitchen on a dime and in a New York minute by finding (who else?) a New York carpenter to reface your cabinets. Then cover or paint the countertops yourself.

8. Don’t put away your paintbrush just yet. Use it to refresh your backsplash tiles with a change of color. Don’t have a backsplash? Paint one on, in a scrubbable finish.

9. Change the bathroom or kitchen hardware for a sophisticated modern style to get a trendy, low cost new look.

10. Refinish your bathtub. Reglazing is a fraction of the price of replacing.

11. One area where you might actually want to spend a little extra is on environmentally aware features. For example, eco-friendly items like energy-efficient double- or triple-paned windows, a fuel-sparing tankless water heater, or a dual-flush toilet will cut your energy or water bills significantly and save money for you in the long run.

If you’re on the fence (or on a budget), there’s always the old standby—paint. A change in color can have a huge impact on your kitchen and the payoff far exceeds the effort (although removing all the doors and hardware may prove a little tedious). Get out the sandpaper and pick some paint swatches, and you’re halfway there.

Wallpaper the Interior

Take the wallpaper off the wall and put some on the inside of your cabinets instead. The application process may be a little tricky, but the peek-a-boo effect will give you a reason to smile every time you reach for a glass.